


Understated

by esmaier



Category: A3! (Video Game)
Genre: Domestic, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-22
Updated: 2017-12-22
Packaged: 2019-02-18 08:55:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,161
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13096698
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/esmaier/pseuds/esmaier
Summary: un·der·stat·edadj.presented or expressed in a subtle and effective way-for A3 SS2017





	Understated

**Author's Note:**

> Title: Understated  
> Prompt(s): AzuTasu/domestic themes  
> A3 SS2017 for Gao ([@AZAMllZUMIDA on twitter](https://twitter.com/AZAMllZUMIDA))
> 
> Written in the style of answering OTP/ship prompts, which I’ve been wanting to try out. Set sometime after Winter Troupe’s third play.  
> Prompts used:  
> >Who confesses first?  
> >Who worries more about their appearance?  
> >The overprotective one?  
> >Who is more affectionate?  
> >Night/Morning person?

It’s something slow, something that happens without Tasuku really realizing that it is. Mankai’s Winter Troupe has always had a _Thing_ about being the adults, and as a result, their _Thing_ (capitalized and italicized) has always lead to each of them avoiding confrontation of any form under the guise of consideration. This, unfortunately, applies directly to their interpersonal romantic relationships, and neither Tasuku nor Azuma are exempt.

Even if he were to look back on it, he would admit that he can’t tell when he started falling for Azuma, caught up in the rush of Mankai, lost in each of the plays, let alone when Azuma began feeling the same. When he asks Azuma about it, later, much later, he only gets an airy smile and a consoling pat on the chest before his vision is obscured by a light curtain of white hair falling around him.

 

 

Tasuku is pretty sure Azuma is a good bit older than him, with the whole “Sakyo-kun” and what-not (Tasuku would never dare be so blasé with the eldest of the Autumn Troupe), but Azuma has an ethereal air about him that confuses Tasuku. But it’s not like he cares. He’s dated older, younger, and others of the same age as him in his lifetime, and it never felt like much of a relevant matter to him. After all, age is just a number, to him at least. Other things are more important.

Like how he’s a disaster through the day’s rehearsal because he keeps getting distracted by the way Azuma sweeps his ponytail over his shoulder, exposing the delicate line of his neck, or the way he gets progressively less functional with every concerned glance Tsumugi shoots his way. It’s a miracle at all that he makes it back to his room in one piece, falling face forward onto the floor and not electing to move until Tsumugi crouches by his head. When Tasuku makes no move to even look at Tsumugi, a hand falls into Tasuku’s hair, gently ruffling it.

Tasuku turns his head to glare up at Tsumugi, who gives him a cheeky little smile. “Do you want to talk about it?”

“Not particularly,” is Tasuku’s answer, even as he closes eyes, taking comfort in the weight of Tsumugi’s hand on his head. He’d had a crush on Tsumugi, long before, when they had been younger. Now, Tsumugi is a source of comfort to him, and with most of the issues of their friendship resolved, he’s something steady that Tasuku can seek out.

“You can’t avoid it forever. That never ends well, particularly for someone like you.”

“He’s not simple, not like some younger members we kn— Ow!” Tasuku’s cut off when Tsumugi abruptly goes from petting his hair gently to sharply hitting him in the same place, and he looks up to see a tetchy look on his childhood friend’s face, the same one that Tsumugi expresses every time his not-issue is brought up.

In the same moment, the look is replaced by a look that could be interpreted as gentle to anybody who didn’t know Tsukioka Tsumugi (and, oh, did Tasuku know Tsumugi), and his voice, cold in a way that could only pair to his look perfectly, floats over Tasuku. “All the more reason to go solve it now, hmm? You’re not allowed back into this room until you fix this. After all, as the leader of this troupe I can’t have practice being so unproductive, can I?”

 

 

Tasuku recounts this to Azuma, the reason Tasuku is now in Azuma’s room, sprawled on his side with Azuma sitting facing him, sticking cold toes under Tasuku’s torso, and Tasuku forgets to scowl, mesmerized as always at the way Azuma’s head falls back as he laughs, the light of the setting sun filtering in through the window and catching against lashes curling against a pale cheek, setting the fall of fine hair ablaze in colors of warmth.

To Tasuku, Azuma could never not be beautiful.

 

 

And it causes him possibly as much grief as it does anything else.

Tasuku realizes, somewhere down the line, that he’s somewhat accustomed to this. To being surrounded by pretty people. First Tsumugi, then whatever girlfriend he’d had hanging off his arm, and now Azuma.

It just means that he can’t help the surge of protectiveness when Azuma unknowingly, or perhaps knowingly, draws the attention of others, whether it be within the company, or outside of it. He can’t blame the others, really, not when Azuma holds that allure in the very air around him. Azuma is beautiful, and Tasuku knows that _Azuma_ knows he’s beautiful, but Tasuku begrudgingly admits that Azuma is much more so when he’s not completely aware of it.

Unfortunately for Tasuku, he’s not the only one who thinks so, whether others are aware of it or not. While Azuma is normally all deliberate seduction with calculated movements and carefully chosen words, when Tasuku catches Azuma unaware, there’s a subdued sort of quietness to his movements.

So he adjusts to it. Learns to use his presence and size to slip into the same periphery, to hover a little closer than strictly necessary when someone gets caught up in Azuma’s presence.

Yet, he avoids outright gestures.

They both do.

Tasuku doesn’t mind, if only because grand, overt actions leave a bad taste in his mouth, reminding him of grandiose stages and harsh lights. He much prefers subtlety, like the way Azuma lets their hands brush as they walk next to each other, the way Azuma’s eyes light up when he catches Sakyo and Kazunari setting up the mahjong board in the living room.

When they’re alone though, they’re both a little more open in their affection. Tasuku likes the weight of Azuma against his chest when they read through their scripts and how slim fingers along his jaw tilt his head just as a smile presses against his mouth. He relishes in the way his chest tightens as Azuma not only relents to his advances, but welcomes them, pulls Tasuku closer as they chase pleasure together.

 

 

Tasuku is not a night person. He can, and will, fall asleep anywhere given the right circumstances. Azuma is, in general, and Tasuku is aware of it. He doesn’t particularly mind though, whether Azuma is there when he falls asleep or if he isn’t. While he prefers to have the other with him, it’s not something that haunts him, not when he knows Azuma himself prefers to have Tasuku with him when he sleeps, if only because it eases the nightmares that haunt him.

But sometimes, when Tasuku is woken by movement or noise from Azuma still being awake, he likes to pretend to be asleep. He selfishly lies perfectly still, just so he can admire Azuma’s ethereal beauty under the light of the moon, and resists the urge to laugh when he realizes that his behavior is possibly, just maybe, another derivation of Winter Troupe’s _Thing_.

  
  
  
  



End file.
